Fife's blessing day

So on December 1st after Thanksgiving, we had Fife blessed in our home ward, the Alexandria 1st ward. He was blessed by Taylor and those in the circle were Taylor's dad Jim, and brothers JL and Erik. It was such a beautiful blessing I can't wait to see everything that is in store for our little boy. I'm so thankful for Taylor and his example and worthiness to hold the priesthood. It was such a great moment to see my husband fiscilitate the spirit and give this blessing to our son, it has made my love for him grow so much. Here are a few pictures from the happy day.
                                                           

                                                           the man himself

                                         baby Fife with cousin Alyssa, too cute!

                                         Love our happy family

                                                             

So that night we had Taylor's family at our apartment, we did music and watched home videos, and talked and laughed. The next day everyone flew out, but before they did we headed downtown to Taylor's office to have lunch. We got our food at the food trucks that line up outside around the block and then took it into his building and ate it in the bistro.

Other things that have been happening here in Alexandria...

                         Fife and I got our passports! We are ready to travel the WORLD!

The two cutest guys eva! Fife is ready to go to the office with his daddy :) 

Looking sharp boys!

I took this video today, he was so happy tonight and was laughing away. I think I first heard him laugh about a month ago in the middle of the night after I had fed him, I haven't heard it much since then but tonight he was just laughing and laughing. I tried to get a video of him laughing but I think he caught onto me. I did however get some good smiles!

                                     

Until next time!

Give Thanks!

We were sad we weren't able to go to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with KL's family, but it turned out awesome that all of Taylor's family (except Doug!) was able to come to Maryland and spend the holiday together in a beach house condo. It was a lot of fun! We did lots of different activities and kept each other entertained. Everyone loved the chance to see new baby Fife and hold him :)

 Walking back to the house from the clubhouse after playing fun games, it was raining and freezing cold!

 At the beach on Assateague Island. We did some four wheeling in the sand, which terrified me, and then walked around a bit. It was freezing! We also did a short hike in the forrest looking for the wild horses that live on this island, but we didn't end up seeing any until driving back, there were 3 by the side of the road, it was pretty cool!

 The boys in their matching shirts

and the girls in theirs!

We did a ropes course. I was apprehensive about doing it because I am still pretty sore from birth, but I decided to give it a try. It was  really hard but I finished it! It was a ton of fun. Taylor did great as usual, he was the fastest and was skipping rungs and such on the course to make it more of a challenge.

Fife with Nana

And now here are some pictures of Fife and Taylor. When Fife was just born I didn't really think he looked like either me or Taylor as I looked at him all night, but then the day after Fife was born, in the hospital, a photographer came and took pictures and then did a slideshow for me to try and get me to buy them. I didn't buy them but it was in the pictures that I saw how much he looked like Taylor! Taylor's mom thinks so too and she sent me some pictures of Taylor as a baby so we can see just how alike they are.

 

 

That being said, I also think Fife looks a lot like his cousin Ryker! In fact, for the first couple days after he was born we all would slip occasionally and call him Ryker instead of Fife. So I guess he really is a mix of me and Taylor. He is the perfect little guy.

Thanks Archibalds for a fantastic Thanksgiving! See you in 2 weeks for Christmas :)

Stay tuned, next post to feature Fife's blessing day!

Happy Day

My goodness it has been a while and a lot has happened! As most of you know Fife was born into our family October 16th. I did the Hypnobabies home study course and I really loved it, it kept me relaxed and confident throughout my pregnancy and right up to the day I gave birth. My mom and I walked to my doctors appointment (about a mile) on the 15th at 11am and I started my birthing waves on our walk home. We spent the rest of the day until around 6:30pm shopping at Home Depot, Goodwill and a few other stops. We headed to the hospital at 8pm and I thought things were going well. I was 100% effaced and at a 4 when I checked in. Sadly I was not able to stay focused in the techniques once we got the hospital, too many distractions I think, and I ended up just doing my own thing. With the help of my fantastic husband Taylor, my mom, and a great midwife, I was able to have a natural birth which is what I really wanted and was so happy that it worked out. Fife was born at 12:58am on the 16th, the same birthday as his daddy!

It has been a wonderful 7 weeks! He is getting so big, I can't believe it, where has my tiny boy gone?

 Fife is super good at lifting his head, right when he was born he was already lifting his head to look around. His favorite thing to do is throw his head back while I am trying to burp him and look at the ceiling. In this picture he is about 2.5 weeks I believe.

Fife on his play mat being fussy :)

We were so lucky to have mom Hazard come and stay with us for the month of October! It was a lot of fun to have her here and she was a huge help with everything. We worked on lots of projects while she was here. Here are a few.

We made Halloween cards and decorations.

                                                                     Painted cans

And lots of things for Fife, here are a few.

                                                Burp Cloths, Taylor did the embroidery :)

                                                            Blanket/quilt, made of strips!

                                                                          Turtle quilt!

                                                    Here is a close up of the turtle quilt

And this is a sign that I saw on Pinterest and I just loved it and really wanted to make it myself. Mom penciled in the lettering the day before she left and then I have painted it since then. I love it!

We kept really busy and had a lot of fun, we wish she could have stayed even longer! We can't wait for her to come again and bring dad along.

We have another video of our apartment up, it has our Christmas decorations and pictures on the wall and  other added stuff we have gotten since we moved in. You can type in KLs Christmas Crib on youtube to see it :) or click here

I wasn't planning on posting again until I figured out how to put up pictures, but I have news I would like to share and a big weekend is coming up!

For starters, today was a great day because I went to the DMV. I spent two and a half hours there and came out with a piece of paper for a license, and Virginia license plates (registration) for our car! Along with the promise for my new Virginia license with Krystalee Deon Hazard Archibald on it (Yay! no more trouble at the airport! And I can finally get a passport!) and the title for our car, because we purchased it from Taylor's parents. A long wait, but worth it. I can't wait to see my license in the mail next week!

After the DMV I headed to our local library and got a library card! It was very exciting. I checked out three books, two on breastfeeding and one on babies (the happiest baby on the block), I think these will be useful in the next coming weeks. 

I also finally purchased the pack n play for our baby! It will be arriving on Friday. We were waiting on money to come in and I was getting kind of ancy to get things all set up. It will be a fun project to work on Friday, and then maybe I will decorate his little corner of our room too?! I also purchased a swing and a moby wrap that I can't wait to try out and see if baby likes. 

Can't wait for the weekend to come, not only is it General Conference but MOM is coming! And possibly baby? We shall see...  :) 

Greetings from Alexandria! Taylor and I have decided to start a blog for our family so that we can keep in contact more easily with the rest of our family and you can all learn somewhat of what is going on in our life! I will try to keep updated with the posts, but we'll see how this goes.
We are enjoying our time here in Alexandria and getting used to our new apartment and new lives in the city! Less than a month until we can start showing off pictures of our little archie! (The real reason we are starting the blog...) Taylor likes his new job and we are both excited about our new calling in our ward as nursery leaders, we went and observed today and got introduced and the kids are so cute, they all just love Taylor!